Rabbit Holes

Most books can be rabbit holes. Gateway portals to higher consciousness and transformation. Teaching us from the characters' experiences, giving us pause to consider our own actions and reactions. Books have a habit of looking into us, rather than the other way around. I think they are the true looking glass. In Wonderland, our Alice is made to look inside for her truths. That crying about things never changes them. That trial and error are often the best teachers. And the greatest tyrants are usually much smaller in heart and intellect than those they exploit.

Alice is a great political allegory, and the fact that we understand it as such today only proves that politics really doesn't change. But we must in relationship to it. Judging by the comments of other readers, it is our hope to be like Alice, still childlike in our love of the world overall at the end of our real life civics lesson. Perhaps loving life a little more not in spite of its imperfections and corruption, but because of them. Encompassing the whole and taking our part in it by not becoming directionless caucus racers, but honest in our disgust and confusion of useless bureauocracy as Alice. (And what about poor Bill? I love little lizards.)

I knew Alice was polital allegory going in. But what astounds me is that Alice Liddle would have been the audience. Much of the story is pretty solemn stuff. C.S. Lewis felt that faery tales were best read when you were adult enough to understand them. I whole heartedly agree.

Next?

I don't want to stop the discussion on Alice because I think we are getting into some pretty awesome stuff.  I do think it's a good idea to think about what we want to do next.

I have a few ideas in the hopper, but since I was the one who wanted Alice, I would like to allow someone else the chance to pick this time.

Keep it in mind and if you've got something, comment.  This way we can get started on the next book.

Happy Reading!

Alice and Drugs

So I spend a few hours looking at Alice on the internet.  The most difficult part of this is the fact that very few sites acknowledge the fact that Carroll wrote the book in Victorian England and not in 60's America.  One of the most infuriating things that I hear when I bring up Alice is that it is an "LSD trip."  Ugh!  It's one of those moments where I wish the violence of cartoons was real and I could wop someone with a sledgehammer.  Anyone who has watched "Hooked: A History of Illegal Drugs" on the History Channel (and come on, who hasn't?)  knows that LSD is a laboratory created drug made by psychiatrists in the 1930's, long after Carroll's boat ride with the Liddell sisters.  If Carroll was using any drugs, and it looks like he was not, it would be the drug du jur: opium.

Along the lines of ascribing drug references where they don't exist, check this out.  While it is likely that some of the differences between Alice the book and Alice the Disney movie can be connected with the drug culture of the time, there are few drug references in the original text.  I do think that anyone who ignores the hookah smoking caterpillar as a not-so-subtle connection to opium is delusional.  Although, I don't think that it is supposed to be a pro-drug reference, just a connection that reflects the social usage of the drug during the time period.  For these two reasons, I want to blow up the website previously linked.

The website also describes the fading in and out of the Cheshire Cat as a representation of the fading in and out of Alice's conciousness while she is "tripping".  Now we're pushing it.

It is important to remember that Alice is a FAIRY TALE!!!  She is traveling through a wonderland and experiencing things that are characatures of real people or experiences.  These stories focus on the belief in the unknown, and trusting in that unknown to resolve all problems.  Alice, though she does cry at the beginning, sets aside her fear and enjoys the journey into Wonderland.  This belief is another way to describe a concept that we tend to forget as adults:  faith.  This lack of faith, or even a clear understanding of how it works, causes us to be jaded and look for other explanations for the story.

This is the cause for the re-tellings of several wonderful fairy tales, like the sexually experimental Little Red Riding Hood, and destroys the true innocence of these tales.  This drug obsessed reading of Alice is just another example of this and distracts from the true meaning of the story:  to explore the unknown with an open heart and to remember that innocence throughout our lives.

Another quick thought:  have either of you read the book Jurassic Park?  When teaching the book in Onalaska, I read some analysis that compared it to Alice and there is quite the connection when you start to break it down.  Just a thought for another discussion point but I wanted to see how close we were to the same page.

Alice!

I just finished reading “Alice in Wonderland,” and my initial feelings are: a sense of satisfaction, as we are all like Alice; a feeling of hope, as I would like to see in myself the childlike heart Alice's sister describes in the closing paragraphs; and pleasure that this seemingly confused tale would have a tidy ending, that Alice would continue in her life just as before.

Alice is selfish and self-centered, yet generous and inquisitive—as often children are. But do we ever really grow out of that? As Alice journeyed through Wonderland, she reacted to the challenges and drama with tremendous self-assurance, though fraught with fallacy and flat-out untruths. Far from being restricted to just children, most of us can admit to going through life in as self-centered a fashion as our Alice. But like Alice, we generally mean no harm, but only do what is necessary to reach our own gardens.

Also, this was wacky. Odd.

Who was the Cheshire Cat, by the way? What did he symbolize, if anything? This leads to my greater question: As the author created “Alice” to entertain a child of the same name, is it likely that he really had any deeper intentions or message?

Looking Forward

This is a nice opportunity for me to start reading the classics. I can't wait to get my copy and get started. This site looks so nice, too. This is going to be great!

A New Year, A New Book

It's January and this is Wisconsin.  It is impossible to imagine a drearier time.  "It's always winter but never Christmas."  So, we have chosen a new book and are going to revive this dead blog.  A lot has changed in the past two years but our friendship has not, nor our love of books.  In light of this, we have chosen a classic to begin anew.  We will be starting Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. 

I'd like to propose an open mind to this tale.  As is often the case with classics, we are already familiar with certain elements of the story.  We know the character and the basic line of her story, but as we know all too well, there is much to be seen when reading something again.  Remember The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter:  "Ahh, but have you ever read a book twice? Books change each time you read them."  Let's try to approach Alice with as much of a clear mind as is possible.  We never know what she will show us, but we can certainly change it by allowing our prejudice to blind us.

This extends to criticism.  I've been trying, especially since I'm focused on classics lately, to avoid reading any criticism of a novel before reading the novel itself.  Alice is particularly vulnerable to criticism for several reasons, including the recent movie, the overwhelming popular representations of her in our culture and the somewhat scandalous nature of Lewis Carroll's life.  After we finish the book though, I would be interested in comparing our reactions with those of others in the literary community.  Symbols in particular tend to surprise me when I look at criticism and I imagine that there is quite a bit written about what Alice means.

With that said, here we go!  I'll see you at the bottom of the rabbit's hole.....